X 



A SHEAF OF NATURE NOTES 



I. nature's wireless 



The Spirit of the Hive, which MaeterUnck makes 

 so much of, seems to give us the key to the psychic 

 hfe of all the lower orders. What one knows, all 

 of that kind seem to know at the same instant. 

 It seems as if they drew it in with the air they 

 breathed. It is something like community of mind, 

 or unity of mind. Of course it is not an intellectual 

 process, but an emotional process; not a thought, 

 as with us, but an impulse. 



So far as we know there is nothing like a council 

 or advisory board in the hive. There are no de- 

 crees or orders. The swarm is a unit. The mem- 

 bers act in concert without direction or rule. If 

 anything happens to the queen, if she is lost or 

 killed, every bee in the hive seems to know it at the 

 same instant, and the whole swarm becomes greatly 

 agitated. The division of labor in the hive is spon- 

 taneous: the bees function and cooperate as do the 

 organs in our own bodies, each playing its part 

 without scheme or direction. 



This community of mind is seen in such an in- 

 stance as that of the migrating lemmings from the 

 Scandinavian peninsula. Vast hordes of these lit- 

 tle creatures are at times seized with an impulse 



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